A corporation represents a case for the concept of business drivers and a single focus. If the corporation is consistent with a uniform focus across all operating divisions, no problem exists. When a corporation is made up of diverse strategic business units, the problem of single focus is compounded. What is the correct driver for the corporation? If the planning team selects the wrong driver, serious operational difficulties will follow. Assume the corporation has a customer-intimate focus. What happens between the corporate staff and the operational staff of the business unit that is products-focused? What functional or dysfunctional behaviors are demonstrated in exchanges between the corporate staff and the business unit that is an operationally excellent unit? Imagine the communications conflict between the corporate staff and the business unit that happens to be properties-driven. In each of these cases you have a serious operational conflict. The management teams are behaving from uniquely different views of the same mission.
There is no internal organizational alignment, when business units have different focus from the corporate focus, loss of direction, cohesiveness, and teamwork happens. To resolve the conflict created by misalignment, you may choose to have all your business units come into alignment by shifting from one focus or orientation to a consistent focus across all units. There are two solutions: You may have them all become operationally excellent. You may choose to make them all product-focused. Alignment can be done by that method. Before you jump to that solution too quickly, consider the cultural shift requirements and implications. You may not be able to get people to move from a product focus to an operational-excellence focus. Employees will passionately charge that the organization no longer cares about the quality of its products. They see the company as a money-hungry organization trying to drive costs down. They equate steps like reengineering and downsizing with cost cutting only for the sake of being more profitable.